Lost Cities Revealed with Albert Lin (2023) s01e06 Episode Script
Miracle in the Desert
1
♪
Abdullah, roll the sails.
Like the first time?
Yes, yes, okay.
Over here, this one?
Yeah!
History often shows us
the most dominant civilizations
are those
with the sharpest blades.
Got a little wind under us now.
But sometimes the most powerful
are those with
the sharpest minds.
This way, yeah?
5,000 years ago, these waters
were part of a vast
trading network
ruled by the mysterious
Lords of Magan.
The Magani were pioneers
of the international
copper industry
during a period of unprecedented
technological innovation
called the Bronze Age.
They were legendary
for having access to copper
in a quantity and quality
that nobody had
ever seen before.
Some of the very first texts
in human history
describe these
mysterious traders
on blackened boats.
But they don't tell
where those boats came from.
Where did these bold pioneers,
who helped fuel an era
that gave the world writing,
the wheel and irrigation,
come from?
And what did their forgotten
desert world look like?
You guys ready?
-Testing, yeah.
-Yeah.
-Yalla yalla.
-Yalla.
Let's do it.
Around 3000 BC
the ancient civilizations
of Egypt, Mesopotamia
and the Indus valley
mastered the power of bronze,
changing the world forever.
To make bronze, you need copper.
And the best copper
was produced in Magan,
an area believed to cover parts
of modern-day Oman and the UAE.
My quest begins at Ras Al Jinz,
on Oman's exposed
northeast coast.
There's a dig up here
on the beach somewhere,
should tell us more
about the Magani.
You lead the way!
The engineer in me
is fascinated
by how the Magani ran
an operation on this scale.
It must have taken
thousands of people
living and working together.
I like your office.
Yeah,
it's fantastic, right?
This is the dream place
where I work with my team.
Archeologist Valentina Azzarà,
from the University of Leiden,
has been excavating ruins
on this beach for over a decade.
All this
is about 5,000 years old.
Wow!
She's discovered evidence
of Magani activity
and hopes our
scanning technology
will reveal more clues
about what went on here.
I know that from the texts
of Mesopotamia,
they describe blackened boats
and copper.
Are you finding anything that
might fit that description here?
Oh, yes.
We found quite a few things
that would fit that description.
Oh!
I will show you.
While I explore
the boatyard,
Joe and Duncan launch
a drone-mounted thermal camera
to scan beneath the sand.
It's just
the mountain, isn't it?
'Cause that's
over the top there.
I think it's
the props, actually.
We realized that
these walls were probably used
as a structure
for waterproofing the boats.
So, they were putting
their boats upside down, here.
Like this?
Yes, like this,
and they would waterproof them
with bitumen.
Bitumen!
It's kind of like a tar,
black, right?
It is black, yes.
Blackened boats!
Exactly.
What's incredible is
that all the ancient texts
from Mesopotamia,
they end with just
the, the description
of these blackened boats
carrying copper.
But here, you're showing me
the boatyard
where the blackened boats
might have been maintained
or even built.
Yes.
Valentina's discoveries
prove Magani traders
used this beach.
But was this just
an isolated boatyard
or part of something
more significant?
How was the scanning out there?
It must have been hot.
It was brutal.
Basically,
it's like a big heat camera
of the whole site.
So, the different colors
show a difference
in temperature.
Stone produces
a different heat signal to sand.
So, any stone structure hidden
underneath the sand will show up
as a lighter color on our scan.
If I load up your previous
excavations, we can see,
so here you
previously excavated
Mm-hmm, yes.
and also, here.
What's that right there?
You see that?
It's very faint.
I can highlight it.
There's a big square here,
and then there's one here.
Okay, yes.
So, we can highlight that
so you can see it
a little bit clearer.
Alright,
but that's definitely
something different there.
It's definitely something.
Given the shape,
it might be some buildings.
Yeah.
That's like literally,
that's right here,
that's like literally
a few feet away!
Exactly!
And that's great.
That's just really fantastic.
5,000 or so years ago,
the sea level was
much higher, right?
It was higher, yes.
We can bring
the sea level up
to what the climate data says
the sea level would have been.
Suddenly the buildings are much
closer to the ancient shoreline.
That's incredible.
Honestly, because evidence
of this natural harbor
is what we've been looking for,
for quite some time.
I mean, if you're
building boatyards
and you're building
permanent structures,
to me that
that sounds like a port.
It does.
And this is incredibly exciting,
because evidence of a port
is what we've been looking for.
I see the blackened ships
that the Mesopotamians spoke of,
sailing off in every direction
from these little
buildings here.
When we see it like this,
we discover more things.
Thank you for, you know,
showing us everything here.
Thank you.
Thank you, all of you.
It's a really
big deal for us.
All this data are making me
very, very happy!
Ahhhhh, nice work,
everybody, nice.
Our scans have convinced me
that this 5,000-year-old port
played an important role
in the Magani copper trade.
But it feels like an outpost.
Nothing discovered here suggests
a base for thousands of people.
To find the Magani civilization,
we need to explore the mountains
where the copper was mined.
To reach them, we need
to navigate the giant dunes
of the Sharqiya Sands.
Let's go!
♪
Radio check, do you hear me?
Good check.
Unlike the great cities
of Egypt and Mesopotamia
built along fertile
river valleys,
conditions in Magan
were far more extreme.
Our journey will take us inland,
across the Sharqiya Sands
over 4,800 square miles
of punishing, stunning desert.
Temperatures here regularly soar
above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
And less than an inch of rain
falls each year.
But somehow life finds a way.
Watch out for the camels.
Oh, agh,
look at the camels!
You're herding goats now, Albert.
I've found
a new calling.
Explorer and farmer.
This is what you think
of when you think of Arabia.
The dunes.
Our Bedouin guide, Nabhan,
knows this area intimately.
The deserts of Arabia.
What do they call it in Arabic?
Ramla du Sharqiya.
I'm in the Ramla du Sharqiya.
Pull left, pull left.
But shifting sands
make driving unpredictable
and dangerous.
Up, up, up, up.
-Alright!
-Yep.
Joe, Duncan,
do you copy?
You guys okay?
We're just
a little bit behind you.
What was that, my tire?
Yeah.
Yeah, stop, stop.
Yeah, I'm just
getting up here.
Okay, go, go, go.
Oh, you guys got a flat!
The tire popped. Ugghh.
So, when he came down
off the dune,
the weight went on this tire.
Oh,.
We heard it pop.
Sorry, bro.
That's the last thing
we need out here.
It's about to get dark as well.
You guys have water?
Gonna need a,
need a bottle soon.
Sun's about to set,
and look where we are.
This is not
a good situation at all.
Let's see if we can get
some air into this tire again.
Agh.
Is that good?
Yup.
There we go,
it's gonna pop.
Three, two
Oh!
That was a better pop. Nice.
Good job, man, thank you.
Alright.
Alright.
You said there's a well
around here, right?
With no roads or signposts,
it's too dangerous
to travel after dark.
We'll stop for the night
and take on some water.
Is this the well?
Yeah, this is
the well here.
Look at that.
Wow, look
at these camels.
Beautiful.
How are you?
Water?
Look at this, we found water
in the desert.
How do you say water
in Arabic?
-Mai.
-Mai?
-Yeah.
-Mai.
My friend.
-I'm Albert.
-Albert.
Joe, Duncan.
-Nabhan.
-Nabhan.
Saeed.
-Saeed?
-Saeed.
You live here?
Yes.
The Bedouin are the only
people who live in this desert.
But water supplies are extremely
scarce and slow to replenish.
So, they never stay long
in any one place.
Yeah?
He invited us
over to his house.
Let's go check it out.
We got to go
as the Bedouins go, right?
Okay.
Move yourself
to the back
and you know the technique, yeah,
it goes front, back, front, yep.
I'll meet you
back at the house. Follow us.
Good luck.
Rather him than me.
Yep.
I am now on a camel
riding through
the deserts of Arabia.
This is a feast!
Mmm.
Excellent.
-Good.
-That means good, right?
-Kwayes.
-Delicious?
Kwayes, kwayes.
- Delicious.
- Delicious.
Tasty.
What are the knives
on their bellies?
This is the Omani daggers.
-Omani daggers?
-Yeah.
Who has the oldest dagger?
Oh!
No, it's yours.
From his great-grandfather.
Wow, look at the detail.
After him
it will go to his sons.
This is called, uh, Saidiyah.
And it's all silver.
Wow.
Passing down one generation
to the next in the desert.
I have a knife.
Try to put it in your case.
Are you trading, Albert?
Try to put this one
in your case.
Yeah, put it here.
Yes, yes.
For many years,
historians assumed the Magani,
like the Bedouin,
were a nomadic culture.
But I'm convinced the scale
of their industry
would have demanded
a large, permanent settlement.
We're looking for the people
that traded copper
5,000 years ago
and trying to find evidence
of a city maybe,
where they might have lived.
Do they know of anything
like this?
Do you know
of any city or village
that goes back 5,000 years old?
The Bedouin are
great collectors of stories.
Maybe the Magani feature
in their cultural memory.
He says
not around this area.
But if you drive across
the dunes, there is mountain.
Mountains?
In the old days, they
used to do it with, on camel.
We better get good
at riding camels
if you can't learn
how to drive better, Joe.
Ha ha, I'm working on it,
I'm working on it.
Hearing those Bedouins
tell their stories tonight,
stories that have been
passed down
from generation to generation,
it made me see the desert
in a whole new way.
Tomorrow we head
into the mountains,
the source of the Maganis'
precious copper.
But was that where these
forgotten people lived?
These switchbacks
are getting tighter.
Let's take 'em all real slow.
Copy that.
-The extraordinary
Hajar Mountain range
in the north of Oman
stretches for over 400 miles.
Millions of years ago
rare minerals, like copper,
were forced to the surface
of these mountains
from deep within
the earth's crust.
This is like a geological
wonderland, huh?
Yes, definitely.
The geology of Oman
made its fortune.
Archeologist Dennys Frenez
has spent years digging
into the history
of Bronze Age trading networks.
Minerals like copper
were available
almost on the surface.
And so the ancient people, they
were able to mine the mineral,
copper minerals,
without digging deep shafts
or complex mine sites.
So, what's
the tell-tale signs?
How do we find copper
in the stone?
Color.
If you want, I can
show you something,
it's a geological sample,
this is a piece of
-Oh, wow, oh!
-chrysocolla.
-Chrysocolla?
-Yeah.
This is copper ore?
Yes. And you can see
how dramatic the color is.
There were veins
on the mountains of that color.
That's gorgeous.
Looks like it's
from a different planet.
Yeah.
Imagine seeing this
on the side of a hill.
It would be beautiful,
wouldn't it?
Definitely.
The oldest evidence we have for
exploitation of this material
is for cosmetic.
So, they probably were attracted
at first for the shiny color.
And they eventually discovered
that it may be turned
into something very hard.
Are these hills
filled with copper?
They used to be.
Nothing of the good materials
is left.
They mined out
all the good stuff they had.
It was like a copper rush.
The international
Magani copper trade lasted
for around 1,000 years.
Look at that ridge right there!
It's like temples of stone.
With no copper left
and with no written historical
record of their own,
there's very little evidence
of the Magani people
or their culture.
And this is where
my children grew up,
just jumping from
boulder to boulder.
We've been hiking
for about an hour now,
up through this canyon.
Maybe this is the same canyon
that Maganian footsteps walked
thousands and thousands
of years ago.
Local climber and explorer
Khaled Abdul Malak knows a place
where at least one Magani
is believed
to have left their mark.
Look up there.
You see there?
What am I looking at? What?
Oh, look at that.
This is rock art
from the Bronze Age.
Oh, wow.
We've got to scan this.
-Alright?
-Yep.
This is the most
significant and elaborate
Magani artwork
ever found in Oman.
The images are faint,
but by capturing hundreds
of high-definition photos,
we can create a scan
that might reveal clues
about how and where
the artist lived.
Is it working, Albert?
I can't quite tell.
I'm in the footsteps
of the artist.
Wow.
This is pretty magical.
This is as close as we can get
to getting into their minds.
Yep.
So, we put
the whole scan
into an augmented
reality platform.
Look at that!
It's like a whole world.
Wow!
When we move the contrast up,
you can see so much more.
Look at that.
Wow.
The enhanced image
clearly reveals
an ancient trinity.
I've seen this before.
Archeologists call this motif
Master of the Animals.
This is a similar image
from Mesopotamia.
A man between two lions.
Okay, with two lions. Okay.
-Right?
-Right.
Links to this major
Bronze Age civilization
shows us that this was
created by the Magani.
Our super high-definition scans
allow us to enhance
other potential clues.
I can almost make out everything.
But what are, what is that?
This one looks
like a beehive tomb.
A, a what?
You know,
they have these tombs
that look like a beehive.
There's one actually
up the mountain.
-A Maganian tomb?
-Yes. Bronze Age.
-Can you take me there?
-Yeah, for sure.
If the Magani
buried their dead here,
maybe they lived nearby.
Just check
every single rock
because in some places
it's very loose.
It's hot.
Now the frying
in the sun starts.
Wow, it's hard, huh?
Yeah.
I think if we make
our way up through here
Whew.
Okay.
Well done.
Hey, hey! Well done, man.
You, too. Whew!
Alright.
Ah!
Wow, look at this.
Unbelievable.
It's so beautiful.
It's perfect.
How much time they spent
to build such a thing.
Amazing, my friend.
It is.
Archeologists
believe that this tomb
could be older
than the pyramids of Egypt.
Some 5,000 years ago,
hands of the Magani
put this tomb together.
Can you imagine this being
the final resting place,
to look out at that view
and watch time pass by?
I feel like I'm getting closer
to the Magani.
But a solitary tomb does not
suggest a large settlement.
And there's another problem:
Where's the water?
Okay.
So, this is it, huh?
Yep.
♪
-I'll take that,
yeah, the ASAP.
Okay, you're double-backed,
I'm double-backed.
Yes.
Rising to over 9,000 feet,
these mountains
have a different climate
to the arid deserts below.
During the monsoon season,
rainstorms can lead
to flash floods,
creating a significant impact
on anyone living here.
And, Khaled tells me,
on the mountains themselves.
To understand
these mountains,
you have to go down there.
You have to go inside.
Okay,
so who's going first?
You're going first.
No, no, you go first.
You don't trust me?
Okay, I'm going first.
You are set there?
Yeah.
Climb in.
Door unlocked?
-The harness is good.
-Yeah.
Double-backed.
I'm ready.
-Let's do it.
-Let's do it.
On the,
walk on the same line.
Oh, my god.
Give me a little slack.
Ah!
Happy to be the first?
No!
Enjoy the descent!
Waaah.
Oh, man.
Wow!
This cavern is
over 300 feet deep
and hundreds of feet wide.
Wow.
Look at this.
It's like
an underground cathedral.
Yeeww!
Oh, man.
Albert, are you down?
Awooo! I made it!
I'm gonna get out of the way,
and then make your way down.
Look at this place!
Ah!
Yee-ha!
Khaled!
He's a little speck.
Wow.
You never would have imagined
standing on the top
that this was down here.
What a place!
Hey, hey!
I've been in many caves.
Yeah.
But nothing like this.
It's not only
desert here,
this is all the work
of the water.
-What?
-Yes.
This is limestone, of course.
And, uh, it was practically
carved by water, you know,
raining water.
I mean, this takes
a lot of water
to make something this big.
-Oh, god, yeah.
-Eating away over time.
Oh, yes, yes.
There are so many others.
It's like Swiss cheese.
You have holes everywhere.
Some of them are
broken and empty,
and the other ones
are still full.
Wow! That's amazing.
It is
an underground canyon.
When it rains,
the water can reach
perhaps six, seven meters.
We better get out of here.
Nicely done, Joe.
What a day, huh?
Oh, yeah.
I don't think
I drank enough water.
I mean, all this talk of water,
and I didn't drink
any water today.
Khaled told me that there are
underground reservoirs,
just like the one I saw today,
hidden all over
this part of Oman.
Can you imagine that?
Now, if the Magani people
figured out
how to tap into them,
it seems likely they would
have had enough water
to support a large population
in a permanent settlement.
I'm kind of convinced
that these remarkable people
would have found a way.
But where?
I'm leading
the team west now,
down towards the foothills where
the mountain floodwaters empty
onto the more fertile plains.
What is that?
Look at that.
Wow.
We are walking
on sacred grounds now.
♪
Just being here, you can kind of
feel the vibrations, the echoes,
the reverberation
of the emotion
that would have been felt
right here at the threshold
of this tomb.
Getting these feelings
of what it would have been like
to be a person living
in this harsh desert,
searching for water, breaking
rocks to try to find that ore.
Wow.
If this is where
they put the dead,
and there's so many of them,
then the living must be close.
We must be getting close.
Close to the heart
of the land of Magan.
I see tombs
in every single ridge!
This area is very rich
for archeology.
There are hundreds,
thousands of tombs.
Thousands?
All around, yes.
Archeologist Mathilde Jean
from Sorbonne University
in Paris
has only been working here
for a couple of years,
but she's already very excited
about what are believed to be
Magani structures.
I will show you here
the tower.
You have a tower?
Yes.
Wow!
And this is the inside.
Look at this.
It's huge, right?
I haven't seen
anything like this out here.
This is incredible!
What is it?
This is one of the monumental
buildings of the Magan culture.
We call it a tower because
you see it's a round building.
Wow!
Made of stones
and probably mud brick.
These towers were probably
partly for managing water.
So, we may have a well
in the center
and structures for water
management all around as well.
Do you think
that the site extends
around this main feature?
Possibly, because we found
ditches around the towers
to collect water.
Wow! Look at this!
We think that the towers
of Magan
are somehow connected
to water management.
The ditch itself is dug
into the bedrock.
Even now when it rains,
the ditches are filled in
with water.
This fills with water.
To the top, yes.
And when you dig
in the bedrock,
you collect the water
from the bedrock.
It's a humbling moment.
Hard evidence that the Magani
not only figured out
how to manage and store water
during the rainy season,
they also engineered a way
to access water
trapped in the bedrock
beneath the ground.
It's possible that we had
at this moment
the first agricultural
exploitation of palm trees.
Wow.
Would there be palm trees
all around this?
Yes, proto-palm plantations.
This is
water harvesting?
Yes.
It's amazing.
And it feels like this was
a moment of great innovation.
Yes.
I thought I was looking
for the copper miners,
but you're showing me
the hydraulic engineers
of the ancient past.
There must have been
a lot of people here.
We believe there could be
a settlement.
I would like to know what is
the extent of this site,
maybe there is stuff elsewhere
and we don't see it now.
Mathilde,
this is incredible!
Yeah.
I'm glad you like it.
Joe, Duncan,
you got to see this.
It's this tower.
This site's it might be it.
Let's bring the GPR,
thermal imaging,
the drones, our LiDAR.
Let's just get it all out here.
We'll throw everything
we have at it.
Copy that.
Thanks, Albert.
Good for a takeoff.
Joe and Duncan launch
the very first aerial
scanning survey of the site.
Yes, you can go there.
-Yeah?
-Yes.
Perfect. Perfect.
Using LiDAR technology
to scan and model structures
above the ground,
while ground-penetrating radar
hunts for evidence of structures
beneath the surface.
This site is extraordinary,
but it's not a vast settlement.
I think there's more
to this story.
We're standing over here
somewhere on the map.
Yes.
I think that in this
satellite image right here,
that it looks
like another tower.
What do you guys,
what do you think?
It looks pretty big, though.
Big yeah, but we are not sure
if it's a tower or not.
Maybe I head out there
and see what it is.
Is the bike ready?
Great, we are at the location
waiting for you.
-He's got it?
-Yeah, he got it.
Nabhan's friend
has a motorbike.
I'm gonna take the bike.
Riding across this desert,
I feel like every pile of rocks
could be the remains
of an ancient structure
built by the Magani engineers.
Look at that.
Wow.
It's a big circular structure
just like the one I saw before.
See this?
Cut bricks.
Cut bricks.
Wow.
Look at that, look at that.
That, that's one of the towers.
That's a Magan-period tower.
What is it, what is this?
Look at this.
Ah-ha, look at that.
It's copper, right there!
Copper.
Mathilde, this is Albert.
Do you copy?
Yes.
I really think
I've found another one.
Amazing.
It's a testament to how
unexplored this country is
that sites like this one
have not been studied.
As the sun sets, and with
the scanning data processed,
it's time for answers.
We know the Magani
harvested water here,
but how are these towers
connected?
If the Magani lived here,
what did their city look like?
It took Joe
a lot of processing, but
Great.
we've got
some nice stuff to show.
You can see both the geology
and the archeology
really clearly.
Wow.
LiDAR picks out
the remains of structures
barely visible to the naked eye.
It looks like
there's so many walls.
It really looks like
there's buildings
all along the side of this hill.
There's buildings everywhere.
Wow.
Wow.
Now we go underground
with ground-penetrating radar.
What we're literally looking for
is any kind of geometric shapes
that don't look natural,
like right angles or rectangles.
As we're, we're dropping
through the levels
underneath the ground,
it's about like
about 50 centimeters each time.
Any of the red areas is
basically a sort of detection.
Red should be more solid
than the silts.
Yes.
Red would probably be
rock or some kind of stone.
Straightaway,
we get a big result here.
The red marks indicate
something solid under the sand.
Oh, my god.
That's amazing.
The area below the tower
reveals strong evidence
of multiple ancient buildings.
It could be
that the settlement
was probably even more extended.
It is one of the main centers
of Magan for sure.
It's really exciting.
It's just gone up
a scale, hasn't it?
Yeah. Thank you
very much, guys, for the job.
Amazing.
So could this be
the first oases?
It could be the first oasis.
It's incredible. It's amazing.
The first oases.
Palm trees in the desert!
Yep.
I came looking
for the copper.
But I think what I found
were the engineers.
That's what this story
really is about.
The legendary land of Magan
was only possible
because the people here
figured out
how to craft a world
out of the desert.
The Maganis' imagination enabled
them to thrive in the desert.
By engineering pioneering
water-harvesting technology,
the Magani were able to support
large human settlements here
for the very first time,
allowing them to irrigate
and farm the lands
around the Hajar Mountains,
while mining the copper
they traded overseas.
I believe the mysterious land
of Magan
was made up of multiple
permanent oasis communities.
A cutting-edge 5,000-year-old
society in the desert.
Proving that while Magani copper
provided the fuel
for the Bronze Age,
the Magani people
were the flame
that brought the deserts
of Arabia to life.
♪
That's what's incredible
about an idea.
Ideas outlive all of us.
That's the power of imagination.
♪
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services
♪
Abdullah, roll the sails.
Like the first time?
Yes, yes, okay.
Over here, this one?
Yeah!
History often shows us
the most dominant civilizations
are those
with the sharpest blades.
Got a little wind under us now.
But sometimes the most powerful
are those with
the sharpest minds.
This way, yeah?
5,000 years ago, these waters
were part of a vast
trading network
ruled by the mysterious
Lords of Magan.
The Magani were pioneers
of the international
copper industry
during a period of unprecedented
technological innovation
called the Bronze Age.
They were legendary
for having access to copper
in a quantity and quality
that nobody had
ever seen before.
Some of the very first texts
in human history
describe these
mysterious traders
on blackened boats.
But they don't tell
where those boats came from.
Where did these bold pioneers,
who helped fuel an era
that gave the world writing,
the wheel and irrigation,
come from?
And what did their forgotten
desert world look like?
You guys ready?
-Testing, yeah.
-Yeah.
-Yalla yalla.
-Yalla.
Let's do it.
Around 3000 BC
the ancient civilizations
of Egypt, Mesopotamia
and the Indus valley
mastered the power of bronze,
changing the world forever.
To make bronze, you need copper.
And the best copper
was produced in Magan,
an area believed to cover parts
of modern-day Oman and the UAE.
My quest begins at Ras Al Jinz,
on Oman's exposed
northeast coast.
There's a dig up here
on the beach somewhere,
should tell us more
about the Magani.
You lead the way!
The engineer in me
is fascinated
by how the Magani ran
an operation on this scale.
It must have taken
thousands of people
living and working together.
I like your office.
Yeah,
it's fantastic, right?
This is the dream place
where I work with my team.
Archeologist Valentina Azzarà,
from the University of Leiden,
has been excavating ruins
on this beach for over a decade.
All this
is about 5,000 years old.
Wow!
She's discovered evidence
of Magani activity
and hopes our
scanning technology
will reveal more clues
about what went on here.
I know that from the texts
of Mesopotamia,
they describe blackened boats
and copper.
Are you finding anything that
might fit that description here?
Oh, yes.
We found quite a few things
that would fit that description.
Oh!
I will show you.
While I explore
the boatyard,
Joe and Duncan launch
a drone-mounted thermal camera
to scan beneath the sand.
It's just
the mountain, isn't it?
'Cause that's
over the top there.
I think it's
the props, actually.
We realized that
these walls were probably used
as a structure
for waterproofing the boats.
So, they were putting
their boats upside down, here.
Like this?
Yes, like this,
and they would waterproof them
with bitumen.
Bitumen!
It's kind of like a tar,
black, right?
It is black, yes.
Blackened boats!
Exactly.
What's incredible is
that all the ancient texts
from Mesopotamia,
they end with just
the, the description
of these blackened boats
carrying copper.
But here, you're showing me
the boatyard
where the blackened boats
might have been maintained
or even built.
Yes.
Valentina's discoveries
prove Magani traders
used this beach.
But was this just
an isolated boatyard
or part of something
more significant?
How was the scanning out there?
It must have been hot.
It was brutal.
Basically,
it's like a big heat camera
of the whole site.
So, the different colors
show a difference
in temperature.
Stone produces
a different heat signal to sand.
So, any stone structure hidden
underneath the sand will show up
as a lighter color on our scan.
If I load up your previous
excavations, we can see,
so here you
previously excavated
Mm-hmm, yes.
and also, here.
What's that right there?
You see that?
It's very faint.
I can highlight it.
There's a big square here,
and then there's one here.
Okay, yes.
So, we can highlight that
so you can see it
a little bit clearer.
Alright,
but that's definitely
something different there.
It's definitely something.
Given the shape,
it might be some buildings.
Yeah.
That's like literally,
that's right here,
that's like literally
a few feet away!
Exactly!
And that's great.
That's just really fantastic.
5,000 or so years ago,
the sea level was
much higher, right?
It was higher, yes.
We can bring
the sea level up
to what the climate data says
the sea level would have been.
Suddenly the buildings are much
closer to the ancient shoreline.
That's incredible.
Honestly, because evidence
of this natural harbor
is what we've been looking for,
for quite some time.
I mean, if you're
building boatyards
and you're building
permanent structures,
to me that
that sounds like a port.
It does.
And this is incredibly exciting,
because evidence of a port
is what we've been looking for.
I see the blackened ships
that the Mesopotamians spoke of,
sailing off in every direction
from these little
buildings here.
When we see it like this,
we discover more things.
Thank you for, you know,
showing us everything here.
Thank you.
Thank you, all of you.
It's a really
big deal for us.
All this data are making me
very, very happy!
Ahhhhh, nice work,
everybody, nice.
Our scans have convinced me
that this 5,000-year-old port
played an important role
in the Magani copper trade.
But it feels like an outpost.
Nothing discovered here suggests
a base for thousands of people.
To find the Magani civilization,
we need to explore the mountains
where the copper was mined.
To reach them, we need
to navigate the giant dunes
of the Sharqiya Sands.
Let's go!
♪
Radio check, do you hear me?
Good check.
Unlike the great cities
of Egypt and Mesopotamia
built along fertile
river valleys,
conditions in Magan
were far more extreme.
Our journey will take us inland,
across the Sharqiya Sands
over 4,800 square miles
of punishing, stunning desert.
Temperatures here regularly soar
above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
And less than an inch of rain
falls each year.
But somehow life finds a way.
Watch out for the camels.
Oh, agh,
look at the camels!
You're herding goats now, Albert.
I've found
a new calling.
Explorer and farmer.
This is what you think
of when you think of Arabia.
The dunes.
Our Bedouin guide, Nabhan,
knows this area intimately.
The deserts of Arabia.
What do they call it in Arabic?
Ramla du Sharqiya.
I'm in the Ramla du Sharqiya.
Pull left, pull left.
But shifting sands
make driving unpredictable
and dangerous.
Up, up, up, up.
-Alright!
-Yep.
Joe, Duncan,
do you copy?
You guys okay?
We're just
a little bit behind you.
What was that, my tire?
Yeah.
Yeah, stop, stop.
Yeah, I'm just
getting up here.
Okay, go, go, go.
Oh, you guys got a flat!
The tire popped. Ugghh.
So, when he came down
off the dune,
the weight went on this tire.
Oh,.
We heard it pop.
Sorry, bro.
That's the last thing
we need out here.
It's about to get dark as well.
You guys have water?
Gonna need a,
need a bottle soon.
Sun's about to set,
and look where we are.
This is not
a good situation at all.
Let's see if we can get
some air into this tire again.
Agh.
Is that good?
Yup.
There we go,
it's gonna pop.
Three, two
Oh!
That was a better pop. Nice.
Good job, man, thank you.
Alright.
Alright.
You said there's a well
around here, right?
With no roads or signposts,
it's too dangerous
to travel after dark.
We'll stop for the night
and take on some water.
Is this the well?
Yeah, this is
the well here.
Look at that.
Wow, look
at these camels.
Beautiful.
How are you?
Water?
Look at this, we found water
in the desert.
How do you say water
in Arabic?
-Mai.
-Mai?
-Yeah.
-Mai.
My friend.
-I'm Albert.
-Albert.
Joe, Duncan.
-Nabhan.
-Nabhan.
Saeed.
-Saeed?
-Saeed.
You live here?
Yes.
The Bedouin are the only
people who live in this desert.
But water supplies are extremely
scarce and slow to replenish.
So, they never stay long
in any one place.
Yeah?
He invited us
over to his house.
Let's go check it out.
We got to go
as the Bedouins go, right?
Okay.
Move yourself
to the back
and you know the technique, yeah,
it goes front, back, front, yep.
I'll meet you
back at the house. Follow us.
Good luck.
Rather him than me.
Yep.
I am now on a camel
riding through
the deserts of Arabia.
This is a feast!
Mmm.
Excellent.
-Good.
-That means good, right?
-Kwayes.
-Delicious?
Kwayes, kwayes.
- Delicious.
- Delicious.
Tasty.
What are the knives
on their bellies?
This is the Omani daggers.
-Omani daggers?
-Yeah.
Who has the oldest dagger?
Oh!
No, it's yours.
From his great-grandfather.
Wow, look at the detail.
After him
it will go to his sons.
This is called, uh, Saidiyah.
And it's all silver.
Wow.
Passing down one generation
to the next in the desert.
I have a knife.
Try to put it in your case.
Are you trading, Albert?
Try to put this one
in your case.
Yeah, put it here.
Yes, yes.
For many years,
historians assumed the Magani,
like the Bedouin,
were a nomadic culture.
But I'm convinced the scale
of their industry
would have demanded
a large, permanent settlement.
We're looking for the people
that traded copper
5,000 years ago
and trying to find evidence
of a city maybe,
where they might have lived.
Do they know of anything
like this?
Do you know
of any city or village
that goes back 5,000 years old?
The Bedouin are
great collectors of stories.
Maybe the Magani feature
in their cultural memory.
He says
not around this area.
But if you drive across
the dunes, there is mountain.
Mountains?
In the old days, they
used to do it with, on camel.
We better get good
at riding camels
if you can't learn
how to drive better, Joe.
Ha ha, I'm working on it,
I'm working on it.
Hearing those Bedouins
tell their stories tonight,
stories that have been
passed down
from generation to generation,
it made me see the desert
in a whole new way.
Tomorrow we head
into the mountains,
the source of the Maganis'
precious copper.
But was that where these
forgotten people lived?
These switchbacks
are getting tighter.
Let's take 'em all real slow.
Copy that.
-The extraordinary
Hajar Mountain range
in the north of Oman
stretches for over 400 miles.
Millions of years ago
rare minerals, like copper,
were forced to the surface
of these mountains
from deep within
the earth's crust.
This is like a geological
wonderland, huh?
Yes, definitely.
The geology of Oman
made its fortune.
Archeologist Dennys Frenez
has spent years digging
into the history
of Bronze Age trading networks.
Minerals like copper
were available
almost on the surface.
And so the ancient people, they
were able to mine the mineral,
copper minerals,
without digging deep shafts
or complex mine sites.
So, what's
the tell-tale signs?
How do we find copper
in the stone?
Color.
If you want, I can
show you something,
it's a geological sample,
this is a piece of
-Oh, wow, oh!
-chrysocolla.
-Chrysocolla?
-Yeah.
This is copper ore?
Yes. And you can see
how dramatic the color is.
There were veins
on the mountains of that color.
That's gorgeous.
Looks like it's
from a different planet.
Yeah.
Imagine seeing this
on the side of a hill.
It would be beautiful,
wouldn't it?
Definitely.
The oldest evidence we have for
exploitation of this material
is for cosmetic.
So, they probably were attracted
at first for the shiny color.
And they eventually discovered
that it may be turned
into something very hard.
Are these hills
filled with copper?
They used to be.
Nothing of the good materials
is left.
They mined out
all the good stuff they had.
It was like a copper rush.
The international
Magani copper trade lasted
for around 1,000 years.
Look at that ridge right there!
It's like temples of stone.
With no copper left
and with no written historical
record of their own,
there's very little evidence
of the Magani people
or their culture.
And this is where
my children grew up,
just jumping from
boulder to boulder.
We've been hiking
for about an hour now,
up through this canyon.
Maybe this is the same canyon
that Maganian footsteps walked
thousands and thousands
of years ago.
Local climber and explorer
Khaled Abdul Malak knows a place
where at least one Magani
is believed
to have left their mark.
Look up there.
You see there?
What am I looking at? What?
Oh, look at that.
This is rock art
from the Bronze Age.
Oh, wow.
We've got to scan this.
-Alright?
-Yep.
This is the most
significant and elaborate
Magani artwork
ever found in Oman.
The images are faint,
but by capturing hundreds
of high-definition photos,
we can create a scan
that might reveal clues
about how and where
the artist lived.
Is it working, Albert?
I can't quite tell.
I'm in the footsteps
of the artist.
Wow.
This is pretty magical.
This is as close as we can get
to getting into their minds.
Yep.
So, we put
the whole scan
into an augmented
reality platform.
Look at that!
It's like a whole world.
Wow!
When we move the contrast up,
you can see so much more.
Look at that.
Wow.
The enhanced image
clearly reveals
an ancient trinity.
I've seen this before.
Archeologists call this motif
Master of the Animals.
This is a similar image
from Mesopotamia.
A man between two lions.
Okay, with two lions. Okay.
-Right?
-Right.
Links to this major
Bronze Age civilization
shows us that this was
created by the Magani.
Our super high-definition scans
allow us to enhance
other potential clues.
I can almost make out everything.
But what are, what is that?
This one looks
like a beehive tomb.
A, a what?
You know,
they have these tombs
that look like a beehive.
There's one actually
up the mountain.
-A Maganian tomb?
-Yes. Bronze Age.
-Can you take me there?
-Yeah, for sure.
If the Magani
buried their dead here,
maybe they lived nearby.
Just check
every single rock
because in some places
it's very loose.
It's hot.
Now the frying
in the sun starts.
Wow, it's hard, huh?
Yeah.
I think if we make
our way up through here
Whew.
Okay.
Well done.
Hey, hey! Well done, man.
You, too. Whew!
Alright.
Ah!
Wow, look at this.
Unbelievable.
It's so beautiful.
It's perfect.
How much time they spent
to build such a thing.
Amazing, my friend.
It is.
Archeologists
believe that this tomb
could be older
than the pyramids of Egypt.
Some 5,000 years ago,
hands of the Magani
put this tomb together.
Can you imagine this being
the final resting place,
to look out at that view
and watch time pass by?
I feel like I'm getting closer
to the Magani.
But a solitary tomb does not
suggest a large settlement.
And there's another problem:
Where's the water?
Okay.
So, this is it, huh?
Yep.
♪
-I'll take that,
yeah, the ASAP.
Okay, you're double-backed,
I'm double-backed.
Yes.
Rising to over 9,000 feet,
these mountains
have a different climate
to the arid deserts below.
During the monsoon season,
rainstorms can lead
to flash floods,
creating a significant impact
on anyone living here.
And, Khaled tells me,
on the mountains themselves.
To understand
these mountains,
you have to go down there.
You have to go inside.
Okay,
so who's going first?
You're going first.
No, no, you go first.
You don't trust me?
Okay, I'm going first.
You are set there?
Yeah.
Climb in.
Door unlocked?
-The harness is good.
-Yeah.
Double-backed.
I'm ready.
-Let's do it.
-Let's do it.
On the,
walk on the same line.
Oh, my god.
Give me a little slack.
Ah!
Happy to be the first?
No!
Enjoy the descent!
Waaah.
Oh, man.
Wow!
This cavern is
over 300 feet deep
and hundreds of feet wide.
Wow.
Look at this.
It's like
an underground cathedral.
Yeeww!
Oh, man.
Albert, are you down?
Awooo! I made it!
I'm gonna get out of the way,
and then make your way down.
Look at this place!
Ah!
Yee-ha!
Khaled!
He's a little speck.
Wow.
You never would have imagined
standing on the top
that this was down here.
What a place!
Hey, hey!
I've been in many caves.
Yeah.
But nothing like this.
It's not only
desert here,
this is all the work
of the water.
-What?
-Yes.
This is limestone, of course.
And, uh, it was practically
carved by water, you know,
raining water.
I mean, this takes
a lot of water
to make something this big.
-Oh, god, yeah.
-Eating away over time.
Oh, yes, yes.
There are so many others.
It's like Swiss cheese.
You have holes everywhere.
Some of them are
broken and empty,
and the other ones
are still full.
Wow! That's amazing.
It is
an underground canyon.
When it rains,
the water can reach
perhaps six, seven meters.
We better get out of here.
Nicely done, Joe.
What a day, huh?
Oh, yeah.
I don't think
I drank enough water.
I mean, all this talk of water,
and I didn't drink
any water today.
Khaled told me that there are
underground reservoirs,
just like the one I saw today,
hidden all over
this part of Oman.
Can you imagine that?
Now, if the Magani people
figured out
how to tap into them,
it seems likely they would
have had enough water
to support a large population
in a permanent settlement.
I'm kind of convinced
that these remarkable people
would have found a way.
But where?
I'm leading
the team west now,
down towards the foothills where
the mountain floodwaters empty
onto the more fertile plains.
What is that?
Look at that.
Wow.
We are walking
on sacred grounds now.
♪
Just being here, you can kind of
feel the vibrations, the echoes,
the reverberation
of the emotion
that would have been felt
right here at the threshold
of this tomb.
Getting these feelings
of what it would have been like
to be a person living
in this harsh desert,
searching for water, breaking
rocks to try to find that ore.
Wow.
If this is where
they put the dead,
and there's so many of them,
then the living must be close.
We must be getting close.
Close to the heart
of the land of Magan.
I see tombs
in every single ridge!
This area is very rich
for archeology.
There are hundreds,
thousands of tombs.
Thousands?
All around, yes.
Archeologist Mathilde Jean
from Sorbonne University
in Paris
has only been working here
for a couple of years,
but she's already very excited
about what are believed to be
Magani structures.
I will show you here
the tower.
You have a tower?
Yes.
Wow!
And this is the inside.
Look at this.
It's huge, right?
I haven't seen
anything like this out here.
This is incredible!
What is it?
This is one of the monumental
buildings of the Magan culture.
We call it a tower because
you see it's a round building.
Wow!
Made of stones
and probably mud brick.
These towers were probably
partly for managing water.
So, we may have a well
in the center
and structures for water
management all around as well.
Do you think
that the site extends
around this main feature?
Possibly, because we found
ditches around the towers
to collect water.
Wow! Look at this!
We think that the towers
of Magan
are somehow connected
to water management.
The ditch itself is dug
into the bedrock.
Even now when it rains,
the ditches are filled in
with water.
This fills with water.
To the top, yes.
And when you dig
in the bedrock,
you collect the water
from the bedrock.
It's a humbling moment.
Hard evidence that the Magani
not only figured out
how to manage and store water
during the rainy season,
they also engineered a way
to access water
trapped in the bedrock
beneath the ground.
It's possible that we had
at this moment
the first agricultural
exploitation of palm trees.
Wow.
Would there be palm trees
all around this?
Yes, proto-palm plantations.
This is
water harvesting?
Yes.
It's amazing.
And it feels like this was
a moment of great innovation.
Yes.
I thought I was looking
for the copper miners,
but you're showing me
the hydraulic engineers
of the ancient past.
There must have been
a lot of people here.
We believe there could be
a settlement.
I would like to know what is
the extent of this site,
maybe there is stuff elsewhere
and we don't see it now.
Mathilde,
this is incredible!
Yeah.
I'm glad you like it.
Joe, Duncan,
you got to see this.
It's this tower.
This site's it might be it.
Let's bring the GPR,
thermal imaging,
the drones, our LiDAR.
Let's just get it all out here.
We'll throw everything
we have at it.
Copy that.
Thanks, Albert.
Good for a takeoff.
Joe and Duncan launch
the very first aerial
scanning survey of the site.
Yes, you can go there.
-Yeah?
-Yes.
Perfect. Perfect.
Using LiDAR technology
to scan and model structures
above the ground,
while ground-penetrating radar
hunts for evidence of structures
beneath the surface.
This site is extraordinary,
but it's not a vast settlement.
I think there's more
to this story.
We're standing over here
somewhere on the map.
Yes.
I think that in this
satellite image right here,
that it looks
like another tower.
What do you guys,
what do you think?
It looks pretty big, though.
Big yeah, but we are not sure
if it's a tower or not.
Maybe I head out there
and see what it is.
Is the bike ready?
Great, we are at the location
waiting for you.
-He's got it?
-Yeah, he got it.
Nabhan's friend
has a motorbike.
I'm gonna take the bike.
Riding across this desert,
I feel like every pile of rocks
could be the remains
of an ancient structure
built by the Magani engineers.
Look at that.
Wow.
It's a big circular structure
just like the one I saw before.
See this?
Cut bricks.
Cut bricks.
Wow.
Look at that, look at that.
That, that's one of the towers.
That's a Magan-period tower.
What is it, what is this?
Look at this.
Ah-ha, look at that.
It's copper, right there!
Copper.
Mathilde, this is Albert.
Do you copy?
Yes.
I really think
I've found another one.
Amazing.
It's a testament to how
unexplored this country is
that sites like this one
have not been studied.
As the sun sets, and with
the scanning data processed,
it's time for answers.
We know the Magani
harvested water here,
but how are these towers
connected?
If the Magani lived here,
what did their city look like?
It took Joe
a lot of processing, but
Great.
we've got
some nice stuff to show.
You can see both the geology
and the archeology
really clearly.
Wow.
LiDAR picks out
the remains of structures
barely visible to the naked eye.
It looks like
there's so many walls.
It really looks like
there's buildings
all along the side of this hill.
There's buildings everywhere.
Wow.
Wow.
Now we go underground
with ground-penetrating radar.
What we're literally looking for
is any kind of geometric shapes
that don't look natural,
like right angles or rectangles.
As we're, we're dropping
through the levels
underneath the ground,
it's about like
about 50 centimeters each time.
Any of the red areas is
basically a sort of detection.
Red should be more solid
than the silts.
Yes.
Red would probably be
rock or some kind of stone.
Straightaway,
we get a big result here.
The red marks indicate
something solid under the sand.
Oh, my god.
That's amazing.
The area below the tower
reveals strong evidence
of multiple ancient buildings.
It could be
that the settlement
was probably even more extended.
It is one of the main centers
of Magan for sure.
It's really exciting.
It's just gone up
a scale, hasn't it?
Yeah. Thank you
very much, guys, for the job.
Amazing.
So could this be
the first oases?
It could be the first oasis.
It's incredible. It's amazing.
The first oases.
Palm trees in the desert!
Yep.
I came looking
for the copper.
But I think what I found
were the engineers.
That's what this story
really is about.
The legendary land of Magan
was only possible
because the people here
figured out
how to craft a world
out of the desert.
The Maganis' imagination enabled
them to thrive in the desert.
By engineering pioneering
water-harvesting technology,
the Magani were able to support
large human settlements here
for the very first time,
allowing them to irrigate
and farm the lands
around the Hajar Mountains,
while mining the copper
they traded overseas.
I believe the mysterious land
of Magan
was made up of multiple
permanent oasis communities.
A cutting-edge 5,000-year-old
society in the desert.
Proving that while Magani copper
provided the fuel
for the Bronze Age,
the Magani people
were the flame
that brought the deserts
of Arabia to life.
♪
That's what's incredible
about an idea.
Ideas outlive all of us.
That's the power of imagination.
♪
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services